‘The NHS is currently in crisis. The government is under pressure over it. Labour should be hammering away at this uncompromisingly, and parking everything else.’
Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

The NHS is in crisis: a “humanitarian crisis”, in the words of the Red Cross. The service is Labour’s invention; at this moment, it should be the party’s focus. A pledge of £350m extra a week for the NHS was critical to the triumph of leave in the EU referendum. It was second in importance only to immigration. As Vote Leave campaign director Dominic Cummings put it: “Would we have won without £350m/NHS? All our research and the close result suggests no.”

I’m not going to join the Twitter outrage over the Labour leadership declaring last night that it was “not wedded” to the right of Europeans to freedom of movement. We on the left sometimes fail to appreciate the distance that exists on immigration between us and the wider population. Name your demographic group: 18- to 25-year-olds, black and minority ethnic Britons, Londoners, Scots – all decisively report a desire to reduce immigration.

Does that mean Labour just blindly tails public opinion? No: that’s not what leadership is. Labour can credibly argue that the economy comes first and membership of the single market is the party’s priority. But it needs, at the very least, a language that reaches a public that overwhelmingly wants less immigration: basically, it must not make most Britons feel as though the party is flashing a V-sign in their face.

But Labour has now shifted the focus away from the NHS crisis, and for what? It is difficult to match what was trailed yesterday and what Jeremy Corbyn has said in his round of interviews today. The leader’s message on radio and TV was not, let’s say, very clear. Many supported Corbyn because they felt he would bring clarity: no more wishy-washy, middle-of-the-road, vacillating leadership. Fists would be swinging, there would be unequivocal opposition to the Tories. Today the leadership has antagonised many of its natural supporters, who are furious about what they see as concessions on freedom of movement; but those who take a different view on immigration will have heard little from Corbyn today that resonates with them.

More puzzlingly, Corbyn floated a proposal for a maximum level of earnings. As tax justice crusader Richard Murphy puts it: “A practical policy on high pay is to deny a company corporation tax relief on payment of all salaries of more than 10 times UK median wage.” This is a workable proposal that Labour should certainly explore and – I would argue – adopt. But why today? First you distract from focusing on the NHS with immigration, then you distract from your immigration distraction. Labour needs a clear vision backed up with clear messaging, not randomly throwing proposals into the ether.

As I’ve written before, the risk with the NHS is it becomes Labour’s crutch, and clearly it needs a much wider vision. But the NHS is currently in crisis. The government is under pressure over it. Labour should be hammering away at this uncompromisingly, and parking everything else. The Labour leadership has been privately discussing a big red bus to Copeland in advance of the byelection, emblazoned with a Labour promise to implement the £350m per week NHS pledge. This is a good idea, but Labour’s Treasury team worries about costs. On this policy – at this time – surely a Corbyn leadership can afford to throw a bit of caution to the wind?

There are some ardent Corbyn supporters who believe leftwing writers should not be making these sorts of public criticisms. The rest of the media have it covered, after all. But the Tories should be on the defensive on everything from Brexit to the NHS. Instead, they are currently, shamelessly, getting away with it all. Labour should be honing a clear, straightforward message, and sticking to it. Time is against them. They only have so many opportunities, and they need to seize them.